Thursday, October 22, 2015

Is ‘Corporate Solidarity’ among Putin’s Governors Breaking Down?

Paul
Goble

Staunton, October 22 – The expectation
by some governors that other governors will support them in every way is
clearly misplaced to judge by a somewhat strange incident involving Leonid
Markelov, the governor of Mari El, and Nikita Belykh, the governor of
neighboring Kirov oblast.

While this case involves something
trivial, it does call attention to the fact that if any opposition figure did
take power in one of the regions or even municipalities in the Russian
Federation, he or she could behave in ways that might affect political outcomes
far beyond the borders of his or her own fiefdom.

And the risks of that are certainly
one of the drivers pushing the Putin regime in the direction of a single-party
dictatorship lest someone using the remaining vestiges of federalism in the
Russian Federation might behave in precisely that way, creating problems that
could potentially send shockwaves through a variety of federal subjects.

On October 19, “Novaya gazeta”
reports today, Markelov gave a press conference at which he denounced the Kirov
governor for allowing Sergey Mamayev, who was Markelov’s opponent in the recent
gubernatorial elections to print his campaign literature and signs in Kirov
oblast (novayagazeta.ru/politics/70432.html).

Belykh’s willingness to do so,
Markelov said, showed a lack of “corporate” sensitivity and respect.“I don’t know why Kirov oblast became the
battle staff against Markelov,” Markelov continued speaking of himself in the
third person as he often does. Other oblast leaders “chose a different way of
behaving” and didn’t print Mamayev’s broadsides.

Even before Markelov’s press
conference, the government-controlled media launched a series of attacks on
Kirov oblast and its leadership, comparing it unfavorably with Markelov’s
fiefdom. So far, “Novaya gazeta” reports, officials and the media in Kirov
oblast have not responded in kind.

One Duma deputy, however, has
responded, suggesting that Markelov should be concentrating on the problems in
his own republic rather than looking for them elsewhere – especially since he
barely squeaked through the 50 percent barrier in the first round of gubernatorial
elections.

Markelov who is deeply unpopular
with many groups in his republic and who routinely ranks low on the lists of
effective heads of federal subjects got only 50.76 percent of the vote. His
opponent Mamayev received 32.31 percent and has appealed to the courts to
invalidate the 0.77 percent of the ballots that would be necessary to force a
second round.